Climate emergency could finally be declared in Bracknell

A full meeting of Bracknell Forest Council (BFC) will be held next week where two motions are being put forward which both call on the council to declare a climate emergency.

Activists in Bracknell were disappointed when councillors did not declare a climate emergency in July 2019, despite every other Berkshire council declaring an emergency that year.

Instead, BFC passed a motion that acknowledged climate issues are a ‘pressing matter’.

The first motion that will be introduced at the full council meeting on January 11 states that this wording should be changed to an ’emergency’.

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However, it is unclear how successful the motion will be as it has been put forward by the Labour group.

The motion will be introduced by councillor Mary Temperton (Labour, Great Hollands North) and seconded by cllr Tricia Brown (Labour, Priestwood and Garth).

But the Labour party only has four councillors on BFC, which has been held by the Conservatives since it became a unitary authority in 1998.

There are currently 37 Conservative councillors and a sole Liberal Democrat on BFC.

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A second, differently worded motion by Conservative councillors also calls for the council to declare a climate emergency.

The motion states: “This council, having given the battle against climate change its utmost priority since we first signed the Nottingham Declaration in January 2007, believes that the council’s actions and initiatives since then, have put Bracknell Forest in the forefront of local authorities in working towards net zero carbon by the year 2050.

“This council further believes that given the term ‘climate emergency’ is now the common parlance for central and local government action towards carbon reduction, this council officially recognises this term, and will in future use it to describe its on-going endeavours and projects towards net zero carbon, which will continue to be reported upon annually.”

The second motion has been put forward by cllr Paul Bettison OBE (Conservative, Little Sandhurst and Wellington) the leader of BFC and seconded by cllr Dorothy Hayes MBE (Conservative, Ascot), executive member for the environment.

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News of the motions has been welcomed by the The Bracknell Climate Action Group, which has been campaigned for the council to declare a ‘climate emergency’ since its foundation in 2021.

Kathryn O’Neal, group leader, said: “The Bracknell Climate Action Group fully supports using the word ’emergency’ to describe the crisis we find ourselves in.

“This is far more serious than a ‘pressing matter’ as it involves the very survival of the planet as we know it.

“This would be a commitment from BFC to taking real, measurable and ambitious action on addressing the climate crisis – which is what our petition asked for.

“We are hoping that party politics will not affect the results of this vote as this is beyond politics and we believe it would acknowledge the concerns of the vast majority of borough residents.”